


Dissonance

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Possession, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:17:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Au where instead of directly making him Gyze's vessel, cbd has Kazuma get diffridden by fallen!Luard. Their issues, trauma and pain get all mixed up and resonate and Everything Is Terrible.Implied Kazuma -> Chrono





	Dissonance

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of what Luard is saying will make more sense if you've read his lores up to November (2017)  
> Anyway I strayed away from my usual SG characterisation bc there was no way to make it work so this time I wrote next!Chrono in all his thoughtless, insensitive glory lmao.
> 
> Warning for implied past abuse and the whole mechanisms that stay with abuse survivors and make it easier for them to fall into more unhealthy relationships afterwards. And, you know, possession. And everything that happened to Luard. Yeah.
> 
> ~~Watch as the next lore makes Luard totally different after whatever they did to him~~ this is based on how he was just before getting kidnapped + a bit of extrapolation bc yeah.

“Would you look at that! It's Shindou!”  
Chrono freezes. He'd been rushing towards the tower as soon as what he assumed was Stark appeared and pulled at his senses, and all this time his stomach had been twisting, but when he reached it Kazuma was standing, and he'd been so relieved and called his name—  
But this isn't Kazuma, something in him warns him with a deep shudder. There's something too acidic about the voice, a rage he hasn't heard even when he was fighting against Shiranui, something so sharp and corrosive that he's barely recognisable, tight with desperation.  
“Kazuma…”  
_What happened!?_  
“Kazuma? _Kazuma?!_ ” Kazuma's body laughs, as if it was the best joke they'd heard all day. “You mean the desperate boy who rushed into danger for you? The boy who's curled up at the bottom of my mind and hasn't even tried to fight me? That Kazuma?”  
“What did you do to him!?”  
“Sorry, Shindou. Kazuma's not here~” He chuckles, and his eyes glint, his teeth flashing with a grin that's almost feral. “Luard, at your service. I'm here to make this shit world _shut up_.”  
Chrono gasps.  
“Luard? But—”  
Luard's been Kazuma's avatar since _forever_! How could he have been an apostle?  
Was he tricked, the way Shiranui had been?  
“What's that? Surprised? Who else did you expect, Shindou, he _is_ my Vanguard after all.”  
“Why are you working with Gyze?! Don't you know—”  
“Because there's no _point_ ,” Luard cuts him off, suddenly switching to dark, heavy anger. “There's no point to this world.”  
“Wh— leave Kazuma's body!”  
“Oh but he thinks so too. He's been trying _so hard_ but he's felt like that for a long time. That's why we resonated so well.”  
Chrono's breath leaves him.  
“You didn't even notice, did you?” the unit wearing Kazuma's face laughs, bitterly, derisively. Hollow. “Do you even know why he went to that tower in the first place?”  
“Huh?”  
“To find something to make him worthy of being around you. Because he failed, you see? There's something you only start to understand when your life's just a succession of failures. He failed, and you succeeded where he did, again and again and again. He tried to save his brother and failed. He tried to protect you and failed. Again and again.”  
“But he didn't—”  
“You gave him a chance to prove himself, so he clung to that all this time. But if he doesn't live up to it, is he going to lose all that again? He only has value as your teammate, after all. That's what you let him understand.”  
“That's not true!”  
“Did you ever show him otherwise? You talked to him, _pursued_ him just for that reason, even against his wishes. You praised his fight and held yourself hostage to make him use it, to make him strong, to make him _win_. You held the truth about Shiranui from him,” and the name comes out hissed, choked with both hatred and guilt, “so he would focus on the tournament. You ignored his distress to focus on it yourself, when he failed to beat him. What other conclusion was he supposed to draw from that?” He laughs, raspy, his face distorted in a snarl but his eyes looking on the verge of tears. “Do you know how it feels, when you've got nowhere to go, no one to rely on? When the only value you have is _success_? When _your entire life is a lie_?” His teeth clench. “Do you know what it's like, to lose a brother?”  
Chrono stays silent. He remembers the feeling, right before he fell into Ryuzu's hands, of the whole world lying to him and having no one he could trust, of being a mere weapon, and the thought of having caused it in anyone makes him _sick_.  
How did he let this happen?  
In front of him, Luard snorts and takes a step forward, pulling out his deck and looking at his own card, face bitter and longing.  
“He was so scared of you leaving him all this time, you know. Because even his beloved big brother abandoned him, when he wasn't good enough. Even when he thinks he can trust someone, he gets left behind because he's not worthy of them. Not worthy of his brother, even now. Not worthy of saving his brother himself. Not worthy of _you_. So he has to do something for you, you know? He has to prove himself. He has to show how grateful he is that you're his _friend_ ,” he all but spits. “Because if you leave, he's nothing again. His friends? There's you, there's Taiyou who came with you. Acquaintances that he only knows through you. And no one else. You're the center of his world. So he tried to fix his failures. He tried to take down those threatening you. So you could have _your_ ideal world, _Shindou_.”  
Chrono stays frozen.  
“A world where you're happy and contented and you can have _fun_ and not worry about others, and he can stay around you and be a little less scared. A world where your whims and desires are satisfied so he doesn't have to worry about disappointing you.” His voice rises, half-breaking. “A world where he doesn't have to cry and be scared anymore. A world where he's not alone.”  
He laughs again, dropping the arm that holds his deck down his side, staring up at Chrono from his downcast face.  
“But that didn't happen. Because the world's never kind; the world's _shit_. Innocents get killed and children get abandoned and no matter how hard you try, there's never a point, because you'll only fail again and again, and when you think you're finally doing something right, you only mess everything up even worse. Just like he did! Running off to prove himself to you… and instead you have me!” His head comes up, his teeth bared in a grin. “Well, I'm tired of this shit world. _He_ 's too tired of this shit world. What's the point?! Nothing ever comes to those who try. No one comes to hold the children who get abandoned. No one wants you around unless you're useful to them. And the only kind people get used and taken from you anyway.” He brings up his arm, holding his deck up in Chrono's direction. “Let's fight, _Shindou_. I'm going to burn it all to ashes.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Chrono still loses the fight. Whoops)


End file.
